Lesson Plan

by Katerina Devyatovskaya

Time 90 minutes

Topic: Detective Story

Level: pre-intermediate

Age: 13-14 years old

Lesson Objectives:

- Given the tasks students will be able to revise the grammar rules

(present/past continuous/simple, sentence structure) with an accuracy of

95%.

- Given the vocabulary (crime) students will be able to learn and use new

words with an accuracy of 90%.

List of materials needed: handouts, whiteboard and markers, projector

Steps/brief description of activities

I. Warm-up Time: 20 minutes.

Explaining the rules

- T tells students that each of them is going to play a detective. T asks whether

they like detective stories, read or watch them, know any detectives. T

supports the discussion.

- T tells that all famous detectives work(ed) with a partner. Students are

divided into pairs. If there is one student left, (s)he joins any group.

- T shows the picture (Appendix A) through projector. T explains that

detectives need to solve the crime. There are 3 things they need to guess: a

murderer, a murder weapon and place. All 3 things must be named at the end

of the lesson correctly. If a student names even 1 thing wrong, (s)he loses.

The winner is who guesses all 3 things correctly. To guess students will do

different tasks and for each right answer they will get 1-2 clues.

- T hands out students the form (Appendix B) and explains the new words. If

a student does the task correctly, (s)he gets 2-4 clues (depends on the

difficulty of task) and crosses out the word which (s)he finds in the clue. If a

student makes a minor mistake, (s)he gets 1 clue. The better students work,

the more clues they get.

- T explains that students mustn’t show their worksheets to other pairs/groups.

- T makes sure that students understand the rules and words and starts the

game.

II. Main activity

Looking for the clues

1. T writes the sentence on the board:

The police are looking for a young tall man who robbed the bank last night.

Each pair must ask 2 questions to the sentence and write them down. T

checks the answers and gives first 2 clues for the correct answers. (8

minutes) 2. T gives the worksheet in Appendix D. Students read the story and tick the

statements below T or F (12 minutes). T gives 4 clues for each correct

answer.

3. T plays recording only once1. T shows the video from 0:10 till 1:20. T asks

each group two questions on comprehension from the following ones:

“Who are two people coming into the room?”

“What is the name of the man detective?”

“What is the name of the elder woman?”

“Who is the elder woman?”

“What does she say when the detective sneezes?”

Students need to answer in complete sentence. For each correct answer

pair/groups get 1 clue. (10 minutes)

4. T hands out the worksheet (Appendix E). Students are asked to fill in the

gaps listening to the rest of the video. Maximums clues: 3. (10 minutes).

5. T asks gives each pair a role of two suspects. T hands out the worksheets in

Appendix (F). Each pair/group needs to answer the questions and memorize

them. Then T asks one student from another pair to be a policeman and ask a

suspect from another group the questions (Appendix G) and write them

down. Then they change the roles. After interrogation, T compares the

answers of each pair whether they are the same. Maximum clues: 4. (25

minutes)

III. Final activity Time: 5 minutes.

- T writes on the board “Who?” “Where?” “With what?”

- T asks students to write 3 answers on the paper. One student of each

pair/group makes a statement: “It was..with..in the ….”. T announces the

correct answers and congratulates the winner(s).

1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtFoJ1BptnU

Appendix A

Appendix B

Who was it? What was it? Where was it?

Professor Plum A revolver In the hall

Colonel Mustard A rope In the office

Mr Green A wrench In the library

Mrs Peacock A pipe In the living room

Miss Scarlet A knife In the dance hall

Mrs White A candlestick In the conservatory

Appendix C (for a teacher)

It was not Professor Plum It was not a revolver It was not in the hall

It was not Mr Green It was not a rope It was not in the office

It was not Colonel Mustard A wrench It was not in the library

It was not Mrs Peacock It was not a pipe It was not in the living

room

It was not Miss Scarlet It was not a knife It was not in the dance

hall

Mrs White It was not a candlestick In the conservatory

Comments: clues should be cut in separate words. T needs as many as there are

pairs/groups in his/her class (words in yellow T should remove as they are the

answer).

Appendix D

Read the extract from the story (219 words).

The mystery of the Pilgrim Quilt2

Ms. Brandford entered the classroom clenching onto a large black bag. As she

walked in, she looked at the many curious eyes. She smiles and said, “Good

morning class, I have a special Thanksgiving for you”.

She pulled a giant blanket from the bag and draped it over a special rack. Daniel

raised his hand, “Why is this blanket special?”. Ms. Bradford smiled, “I’m glad

you asked. It is a quilt that was made by original Plymouth Rock Pilgrims”. The

children were amazed and spent the rest of the afternoon writing about the quilt.

After class, three children stayed behind. Tessie began to touch the quilt and said,

“Ms Bradford, have a look at this! Did you know that the pattern on the quilt is

actually a map?”. The teacher looked thoughtfully, “A map! Where do you a map?

These are just pieces of fabric stitched together”. Chan handed Ms. Bradford his

sketch. It wasn't a sketch at all but a perfect map of the area just on the other side

of the school. Ms. Bradford looked amazed, "Chan, you're a genius! How on earth

did you come up with this?" Chan smiled, "My father is an archaeologist and I see

many maps, so I recognized it was a map almost right away."

True or false?

Statement True False

Children were curious what the teacher had in the bag.

The teacher didn’t want to answer Daniel’s question.

All children went home right after the class.

The children thought that quilt was more than just a fabric.

2 adopted from http://www.4to40.com/story/index.asp?p=The_Mystery_of_the_Pilgrim_Quilt&k=Detective

Appendix E

Fill in the gaps:

Dexter: Excuse me.

Frank: I think he is after the ransom.

Dexter: Excuse me.

Frank: He wants ___________.

Dexter: But you are not going to pay, are you?

Lady M: England without it. Could you imagine it? The chaos. How would people

behave? I mean what will happen if they can’t be ___________ anymore. I can’t

imagine it. … It will be the end of ______________.

Appendix F3

Suspects Card

Get together with your partner and think about:

1. where and when you met

__________________________________

2. what the weather was like

__________________________________

3. what your friend was wearing

_______________________________________

4. where you were at 10 pm last night

_______________________________________

5. what you were doing at 10 pm last night

_______________________________________

6. what you ate or drank at the party

_______________________________________

7. who you talked to at the party

_______________________________________

Comments: T needs them as many as there are pairs /groups.

3 adopted from http://busyteacher.org/18896-whats-your-alibi-role-play-past-simple-vs-past.html

Appendix G

Policemen Card

Ask about the following:

1. Where and when did you meet?

_______________________________________

2. What was the weather like? ____________________________________

3. What was your friend wearing?

_______________________________________

4. Where were you at 10 pm last night?

_______________________________________

5. What were you doing at 10 pm last night?

_______________________________________

6. What did eat or drink at the party?

_______________________________________

7. Who did you talk to at the party?

_______________________________________

Resources: http://lcs.caen.iufm.fr/anglais-

primaire/projets/echanger/elementcluedo.pdf

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtFoJ1BptnU

http://www.rong-chang.com/qa2/stories/story049.htm

http://busyteacher.org/18896-whats-your-alibi-role-play-past-simple-vs-past.html

http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2010/040/e/9/Cluedo_card_weapons_by_Skellingt

onGhost.jpg

http://thehairpin.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/1949-UK-game.jpg

https://encrypted-

tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTWhbt4Adfr6EBlRQbFVSqp2Jtn7AlN6-

F1f4idh8h1tbOZx-JmRQ